Who are the most important thinkers right now?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Jordan Peterson

Yes, he’s an important thinker for incels

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It’s a tough task guessing who will be remembered in 100 years, because sometimes luck and other unpredictable factors play in just as much as importance of contribution or amount of fame in their lifetimes. I’ve read plenty of articles talking about how someone I’ve never heard of was a HUGE, widely popular intellectual of a their decade.

I don’t know politics or philosophy well enough to give examples, but I do read a lot. A few years ago, I stumbled into an Edna Ferber phase and tore through most of her novels. I had heard of a few titles — mostly because they become movies — but barely knew her name as an author. Turns out she was massively popular in the first half of the 20th century, won a Pulitzer, wrote some famous Broadway plays, and nearly all of her books were made into big-name movies. Meanwhile, The Great Gatsby was not a popular or critical success in its time and took off later partly because a group that sent books to WWII soldiers picked it as a nice, short novel they thought soldiers could easily carry around. Which do you think someone in the 1930s would have predicted to be popular today?

Good point. Things can change a lot.

[Anonymous]

Joe Biden

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think Ibram X Kendi will be remembered as a popular political scholar who successfully sold a well-meaning but unproven theory on how to end racism. He will be remembered for both the concept's failure and worse, its further polarization of a society. And I say this as someone who's been fighting racism for almost 40 years now.

He will be remembered as a grifter who produced zero scholarly work from a $40 million endowment, laid off most of his staff and now cannot account for spending of the dollars.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It’s a tough task guessing who will be remembered in 100 years, because sometimes luck and other unpredictable factors play in just as much as importance of contribution or amount of fame in their lifetimes. I’ve read plenty of articles talking about how someone I’ve never heard of was a HUGE, widely popular intellectual of a their decade.

I don’t know politics or philosophy well enough to give examples, but I do read a lot. A few years ago, I stumbled into an Edna Ferber phase and tore through most of her novels. I had heard of a few titles — mostly because they become movies — but barely knew her name as an author. Turns out she was massively popular in the first half of the 20th century, won a Pulitzer, wrote some famous Broadway plays, and nearly all of her books were made into big-name movies. Meanwhile, The Great Gatsby was not a popular or critical success in its time and took off later partly because a group that sent books to WWII soldiers picked it as a nice, short novel they thought soldiers could easily carry around. Which do you think someone in the 1930s would have predicted to be popular today?

OP here. I think it's difficult for novels for sure. Even in other fields, it's hard to know which ideas will fall out of favor with time. For context, I was reading about Saul Kripke and Eric Hobsbawm this week and how they are credited (sometimes controversially) with making huge contributions in their fields.

Got me thinking who might those people be now. Maybe some artificial intelligence scholar.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Jordan Peterson

+1

[Anonymous]

We don't have any good thinkers at this time. What we have is social media, social influencers, ai, trolls. Our era will be remembered for misinformation and pernicious manipulation of popular opinion.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Ta-nehisi Coates

+1

And I would add Matthew Desmond.

[Anonymous]

Bill Gates and Steve Jobs, along with Jeff Bezos, will be known in the same way we remember the Carnegies, Rockefellers, etc.—changed the economy in a transformational way.

Elon will be a legend, like him or not.

As for thinkers, he’s gone but Steven Hawking for sure.

No one follows contemporary philosophical debates like they used to, especially since philosophy became so math-focused. I think the Joseph Raz and John Finnis debates will continue to be remembered as a great addition to philosophy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Ezra Klein

Sadly, I think you're right. Skyrocketed to prominence as a cheerleader for the Iraq War.

Remember when he literally did not understand what Bernie was trying to tell him about the border?

[Anonymous]

OMG as an academic who works in the public space, this feels very very sad.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OMG as an academic who works in the public space, this feels very very sad.

So name names.

[Anonymous]

George Carlin

[Anonymous]

If you add a name, please identify the field or discipline.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Ta-nehisi Coates

Seriously? He is neither important nor much of a thinker.